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History/Social Studies

Argument Writing

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18

Writing Step 3: Organizing and Structuring Evidence

In this third step, otherwise known as planning, students have now made a claim but need to plan out how to support that claim with evidence in their writing. To make this explicit, teachers help students state the claim, name what evidence supports this claim, and explain why that evidence is trustworthy or useful given the essential question.

Graphic representations of what students’ written products should include can help support students in their organizing and structuring of evidence. Such representations might be a flow chart that has students list specific parts of the claim-making process. For example, teachers could have students develop three ideas at a time by asking them to (1) write their claim in response to the question, (2) share a piece of evidence that supports this claim, and (3) explain why this evidence is trustworthy.

Reflect: What types of graphic organizers have you used with your students? Which of these might be useful for supporting students as they organize and structure evidence?